Category Archives: Preventative Medicine

Nurses have the potential to play a significant role in preventive care by helping people live longer and healthier lives

Published: Thu 12 May 2022, 9:00 AM

Undoubtedly, caring for the sick is one of the purposes of healthcare. But creating a growing population of sound and healthy individuals is inarguably more impactful. Medicine and healthcare are thus, no longer about only curing diseases; they must prevent diseases.

Throughout history, as societies advanced, medicine and healthcare progressed, and populations exploded, leading to rising disease statistics, a new reality dawned on humanity: we must return to the age-old truth of preventative medicine.

Preventive medicine is not a new concept; on the contrary, its in-built and an intrinsic aspect of medicine, and it is the best way to build healthier societies. One of the finest promoters of preventive healthcare are nurses, whose role has evolved through the decades, from focusing on disease management to actively promoting disease prevention. And its easy to understand why.

Nurses are central to a patients ecosystem. Through the vulnerable period of sickness, a patient exhibits a high dependency on a nurse in all matters. Nurses are the first base, the constant point of contact, and the go-to resource throughout a patients journey back to health. They offset patients vulnerabilities by always being in close communication.

It wont be an exaggeration to say that many patients lack the knowledge to navigate healthcare services. They are anxious, stressed, and uncertain about how to seek information about their illness. A nurses constant supervision, empathy and guidance opens many avenues for patients to share and unburden their concerns.

Modern-day nurses are trained to educate patients in numerous ways. They use evidence-based information, observation, and insights gained from experience to counsel patients on proactive self-care. Their advisory can range from disease prevention, medication protocols, disease risk mitigation, diet, nutrition, the importance of follow-ups and health plan details and information on services. This educational approach is used for both daycare patients and in-patients, as nurses initiate preventive health discussions, contributing to raising community-wide health awareness.

As they interact across the demographics spectrum, nurses are highly tuned to spot high-risk disease patterns in different communities. It is an invaluable skill that promotes preventive healthcare and helps it fulfil its mission of offering medical assistance and an emotional and socio-cultural lifeline to individuals.

In the modern world that facilitates medical tourism and acknowledges multiculturalism as a social staple, a nurses innate skill to be sensitive to a patients background, culture, and socio-ethnic values is a tremendous asset. It is a core competence that promotes preventive health because cultural norms significantly influence an individuals attitude to health and beliefs, and understanding them is the key to empowering them.

However, we would not be amiss if we view these contributions by nurses as not just skills but as investments that create a lasting patient-provider trust that transforms a patients life. This trust enables patients to cross over from disease to health and keep moving ahead and not looking back.

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North Korea's first-reported Covid-19 outbreak is the "greatest turmoil" to befall the country since its founding more than 70 years ago, according to its leader Kim Jong Un, as the isolated and impoverished nation scrambles to curb the spread of a highly transmissible virus that risks causing a major humanitarian crisis.

North Korea reported 21 more deaths and 174,440 new "fever cases" Friday, according to state media KCNA, though it did not specify how many of the deaths and cases were linked to Covid, likely due to the country's extremely limited testing capacity.

The climbing death toll and surging "fever cases" come after North Korea said Thursday it had identified its first ever case of Covid-19 -- an alarming development for a country with one of the world's most fragile public health systems and a largely unvaccinated population.

But given the opaque nature of the regime and the country's isolation from the world -- a trend that has only exacerbated since the pandemic -- it is extremely difficult to assess the real situation on the ground.

Foreign diplomats and aid workers had fled North Korea en masse in 2021 due to shortages of goods and "unprecedented" restrictions on daily life, making it all the more impossible to obtain information from the country other than through official state media.

But North Korean state media reports have been vague, and many important questions remain unanswered, including the country's vaccine coverage and the lockdown's impact on the livelihood of its 25 million people.

Here is what we know, and what we don't know about the outbreak:

North Korean authorities have not announced the cause of the outbreak.

North Korea's borders have been tightly sealed since January 2020 to keep the virus at bay, making the so-called "hermit nation" even more isolated from the world. It even declined invitations to send teams to compete at the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics, citing the threat of Covid-19.

And as new variants began to emerge, it stepped-up those efforts, cutting off nearly all trade with China -- the country's biggest trading partner and economic lifeline for the Kim regime -- with imports from Beijing dropping 99% from September to October 2020.

It remains unclear how the virus slipped through the country's tightly-sealed borders.

When KCNA reported on the first identification of Covid-19 in the country on Thursday, it did not even specify how many infections had been defected. It simply said samples collected from a group of people experiencing fevers on May 8 had tested positive for the highly contagious Omicron variant.

By Friday, KCNA was reporting that 18,000 new "fever cases" and six deaths were recorded on Thursday, including one who tested positive for the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron.

"A fever whose cause couldn't be identified explosively spread nationwide since late April," the newspaper said. "As of now up to 187,800 people are being isolated."

On Saturday, KCNA said a total of 524,440 people had reported "fever" symptoms between late April and May 13. Among them, 280,810 people were still being treated in quarantine, while the rest had recovered.

An outbreak of Covid-19 could prove disastrous for North Korea. The country's dilapidated health care infrastructure and lack of testing equipment is unlikely to be up to the task of treating a large number of patients with a highly infectious disease.

North Korea's lack of transparency and unwillingness to share information also poses a challenge.

North Korea has never formally acknowledged how many died during a devastating famine in the 1990s that experts suggest killed as many as 2 million. Those who fled the country at the time shared horrific stories of death and survival, and a country in chaos.

"North Korea has such a limited supply of basic medicine that public health officials need to focus on preventative medicine. They would be ill-equipped to deal with any kind of epidemic," Jean Lee, director off the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, told CNN at the outset of the pandemic.

Doctors who have defected in recent years often speak of poor working conditions and shortages of everything from medicine to basic healthcare supplies.

Choi Jung-hun, a former physician in North Korea who fled the country in 2011, said when he was helping to combat a measles outbreak in 2006 to 2007, North Korea did not have the resources to operate round-the-clock quarantine and isolation facilities.

He recalled that after identifying suspicious cases, manuals for doctors said patients were supposed to be transferred to a hospital or a quarantine facility for monitoring.

"The problem in North Korea is that manuals are not followed. When there wasn't enough food provided for the people at hospitals and quarantine facilities, people escaped to look for food," Choi said during an interview with CNN in 2020.

North Korean state media declared the situation a "major national emergency" upon admitting the first officially reported Covid infection.

On Thursday, Kim placed all cities into lockdown and ordered "people with fever or abnormal symptoms" into quarantine; he also directed the distribution of medical supplies the government had reportedly stocked in case of a Covid emergency, according to KCNA.

Kim later chaired a meeting of the country's powerful politburo, which agreed to implement "maximum" emergency anti-epidemic measures. The measures include isolating work units and pro-actively conducting medical checkups to find and isolate people with "fever and abnormal symptoms," the KCNA reported Friday.

"Practical measures are being taken to keep the production going at a high rate in the major sectors of the national economy and to stabilize the life of the people to the maximum," KCNA said.

According to KCNA, the politburo criticized the country's anti-epidemic sector for "carelessness, laxity, irresponsibility and incompetence," saying it "failed to respond sensitively" to increasing Covid-19 cases across the world, including in neighboring regions.

A reporter for Chinese state media CGTN released a rare video from Pyongyang on Friday, recounting his experience on the ground.

"As far as we know, not many people in Pyongyang have been vaccinated, and the medical and epidemic prevention facilities are in short supply," reporter Zang Qing said in a Weibo post.

"Because the capital is in lockdown, the food I have at home is only enough for a week. We are still awaiting what policy the government will announce next."

At a meeting Saturday, Kim inspected the country's emergency epidemic measures and medical supplies. He also urged North Korean officials to learn from China's "advanced and rich quarantine results and experience they have already achieved in their fight against the malicious infectious disease," according to KCNA.

North Korea is not known to have imported any coronavirus vaccines -- despite being eligible for the global Covid-19 vaccine sharing program, Covax.

Assuming most North Koreans are unvaccinated, an outbreak in the country -- which has limited testing capabilities, inadequate medical infrastructure and which has isolated itself from the outside world -- could quickly become deadly.

Calls are mounting on the country's leadership to provide access to vaccines.

"There is no evidence to show that North Korea has access to enough vaccines to protect its population from Covid-19. Yet, it has rejected millions of doses of AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines offered by the WHO-led Covax program," said Amnesty International's East Asia researcher Boram Jang, in a statement.

"With the first official news of a Covid-19 outbreak in the country, continuing on this path could cost many lives and would be an unconscionable dereliction of upholding the right to health."

In February, Covax reportedly scaled back the number of doses allocated to North Korea because the country failed to arrange for any shipments, according to Reuters.

A spokesperson for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said Covax has moved to "needs-based vaccine allocations" and "has currently not committed any volume" for North Korea.

"In case the country decides to start a Covid-19 immunization program, vaccines could be made available based on criteria of Covax objectives and technical considerations to enable the country to catch up with international immunization targets," the spokesperson said.

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Instagram accounts dedicated to the topic of glucose and the intersection of skin, hormones and fatigue are few and far between. However, biochemist and author Jessie Inchausp, otherwise known as @glucosegoddess, is the exception.

Inchausp has been educating her 515,000 followers on balancing blood sugar since 2019 with clever graphs and visuals to make metabolic health digestible. A few years ago, before she started, people didnt seem to care about their glucose levels but times have changed.

Today, an array of tests and continuous glucose monitors on the market are measuring metabolism and providing valuable insights to inform more than just the rise and fall of blood sugar levels.

According to the Global Wellness Institute, preventive and personalized medicine and public health is a $575 billion-dollar market. This sector includes expenditures on medical services that focus on treating well people, preventing disease, or detecting risk factors for example, routine physical exams, diagnostic and screening tests and genetic testing.

That said, a slew of brands like Lumen, Levels, and Everlywell are utilizing continuous glucose monitors, devices, apps and diagnostic testing to give users the opportunity to gain insight into their metabolic health.

Personalized medicine is the future, said Chika Okoli, MD, founder of functional medicine practice, Re-well. And metabolic health encompasses our overall health. Its what connects all of our systems together, whether its our hormone system, the health of our cells, our digestive system, our central nervous system and our brain health.

Lumen, a handheld, portable breathalyzer that measures the bodys carbon dioxide concentration, is meant to help indicate the type of fuel the body is using to produce energy. The app then provides a personalized nutrition program on when and what to eat based on the users metabolism.

Until now, the health and wellness industry has been experiencing a major lack of data and real-time insights in the nutrition sphere, said Michal Mor, founder and chief of metabolic health at Lumen. Our goal is to take the guesswork out of what or when you should eat and how you should exercise on a daily basis from moment to moment.

Trendalytics reported that metabolism searches for Lumen as a brand are up 13 percent.

By understanding how your body reacts to what you eat and how you exercise throughout the day, you can give your body exactly what it needs, added Mor. Essentially, we are teaching your body how to better fuel itself and function properly for life.

Similarly, Levels, an app that leverages a continuous glucose monitor, provides real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact metabolic health. There are so many different health conditions related to glucose, said Dr. Casey Means, Levels cofounder and chief medical officer. Were focused on the root cause approach at Levels, which is if you can stabilize your glucose and increase your metabolic health, it can have multifarious positive effects on different parts of the body. For example, for someone who is trying to get on top of their acne or their wrinkles, by stabilizing their glucose and improving their glycemic variability and their metabolic health, they are going to be on a similar path to someone who may be trying to stabilize blood glucose.

Lara Briden, naturopathic doctor and author, agrees that insulin resistance is a well-known driver of breakouts, and with perimenopause, most women will experience a greater risk of insulin resistance. Not everyone that has insulin resistance will get bad skin, but its a common risk because in women, insulin increases testosterone, but not in a good way, she said. So thats the classic [polycystic ovary syndrome] picture. And during menopause, its safe to say that will accelerate aging to some extent, wrinkles and things like that, but its not the only factor.

More recently, Levels added a new service, offering users the ability to have a phlebotomist come to their home and draw blood to do a series of lab tests, $179, that aim to provide understanding and a more comprehensive picture of metabolic health.

Its the tests that your doctor is probably not going to order, but the research shows they are really important for metabolic health, said Means. For example, a fasting insulin test, which is something that most people have never had before. Itll also have some standard things like a full cholesterol panel and a fasting glucose test, a hemoglobin A1C, but also inflammatory markers. Then youre able to get these labs reported through your Levels app. And what weve done is work with our advisory board to create content, showing people what the optimal ranges for these tests are and how to interpret the labs in a really nuanced way, as opposed to the very generalized feedback we often get from the doctors office.

Everlywell, too, believes in the importance of understanding more about an individuals metabolism by testing three different hormones, cortisol, free testosterone and thyroid-stimulating hormone. One thing that I always emphasize is we are one part of a solution, said Julia Cheek, chief executive officer and founder of Everly Health. We are not the full suite. And its really important that we take part in responsibility in helping people navigate toward next steps or other solutions as necessary. Metabolism specifically, is responsible for daily energy, daily mood, how you feel and how you show up in the world every day. Five years ago, people talked a lot about metabolism solely related to weight.

Okoli echoed that sentiment and believes the best approach to beauty is from the inside out. I based my training that most skin conditions are inflammatory and metabolic health is very closely tied to inflammation, she said. Glucose causes inflammation and sugar causes inflammation. So when youre eating those foods and your body sees that as stressful, youre getting inflammation from a couple of different sources, which can exacerbate a skin condition.

Because metabolic health is linked to hormones, Veracity makes it its mission to test five hormones that are scientifically linked to specific skin conditions. Were focused on hormones from a skin perspective, said Allie Egan, founder and CEO of Veracity. We are not specifically giving you all the details into your metabolic health. We cant really do that through what were measuring or what were focused on. But were taking a whole health approach and helping to push the study between these connections and giving our customers some resources and insights into things that they can be doing to improve this as well. If you have more balanced hormones, youre going to have better skin. Youre going to have a better metabolism. Youre going to have better digestion.

Trendalytics reported that searches for hormonal health are up 7 percent to last year. Hormonal health is becoming a part of the larger conversation of wellness, said Kristin Breakell, content manager at Trendalytics.

One thing to keep in mind about blood sugar is lots of things affect it, added Briden. Stress affects it, how much sleep youve had. Its a lot of data that you dont quite know what to do with.

Enter Hearty, a digital clinic that offers a tailor-made health program providing in-depth health insights through in-home testing and monitoring. The $500-a-month membership comes with a slew of wearables like the Oura Ring and a continuous glucose monitor by Dexcom, in-home testing, a concierge medical team, and an app to track progress and aggregate information.

Metabolic health is a big issue right now and how it impacts daily life, said Dr. David Luu, MD, founder of Hearty. We gather what you eat, the impact of what you eat on your health, how you sleep, your stress, how you exercise, your body composition, combined with all the different genetics, and understanding where you start and where you can optimize. The less inflammation, the better your skin, the better metabolic flexibility, the better body composition, the better lipid panel, the better sleep. And so we monitor that. Thats why we use wearables to keep people accountable, but to show results.

Last year, a study came out of the University of North Carolina that showed 88 percent of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. This means only 12 percent of Americans are healthy metabolically, noted Okoli, which translates clinically into things like obesity, high blood pressure, and cardiac cancer. So we cannot talk about hormone health, metabolic health, and blood testing without talking about what were eating and its effect.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1: Doctors are linking inflammation, often caused by different foods, with skin conditions.

2: A new crop of companies has emerged aiming to give people more insight into their metabolic health through glucose monitors, devices, apps and diagnostic testing.

3: Consumers are willing to spend on preventative medical services preventative and personalized medicine and public health is a $575 billion market, according to the Global Wellness Institute.

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Heres what you need to know about the Paxlovid antiviral drug, monoclonal antibodies and other COVID-19 treatment options.

In late April, the White House announced that it was increasing access to Paxlovid, an antiviral pill manufactured by Pfizer, as well as other COVID-19 treatments.

As more contagious COVID-19 variants emerge and cases are on the rise in parts of the United States, interest is spiking in Paxlovid, monoclonal antibodies and other treatments.

The conversation on social media has turned specifically to Paxlovid. Some people have said the drug is reserved for high-risk patients, while others are discussing reported cases of relapse in COVID-19 symptoms after a course of the drug.

VERIFY explains the facts about Paxlovid and other COVID-19 treatments.

THE SOURCES

FAST FACTS

Paxlovid authorized for high-risk patients:Paxlovid, an antiviral pill manufactured by Pfizer, is authorized for emergency use by the FDA for treatment of mild to moderate coronavirus disease in adults and patients 12 and older who are at high risk for severe COVID-19. This includes people with common conditions like asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and depression, among others.

Potential COVID-19 relapse after Paxlovid: Federal health agencies are investigating reports of relapse in COVID-19 symptoms after a course of Paxlovid. Its unclear right now what might be causing this, but health experts still say the pill is effective at reducing COVID-19 symptoms and rates of hospitalization.

Second antiviral pill: Molnupiravir, manufactured by Merck, is the second antiviral pill authorized for emergency use to treat COVID and its available to people ages 18 and older who are at high risk for severe COVID-19.

Monoclonal antibody treatment:Some people with mild to moderate COVID-19 illness may also qualify for treatment with monoclonal antibodies, which are given intravenously soon after a person develops symptoms.

PAXLOVID

In December 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for Pfizers Paxlovid, the first antiviral drug to treat COVID-19. Its available by prescription only and should be started as soon as possible after a COVID-19 diagnosis and within five days of symptoms.

The entire idea is to catch it [COVID] when it's early. It can kind of start off as a sniffle ora body ache, and then progress. And its usually that week later where people get extremely sick and hospitalized, said Shira Abeles, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at the University of California San Diego.

The drug is given as three tablets taken together twice daily for five days, for a total of 30 tablets. It is not authorized for use for longer than five days in a row, according to the FDA.

When applying for FDA authorization, Pfizer presented clinical trial data collected before omicron took hold in the U.S. that showed unvaccinated people who took the drug were 89% less likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 compared to people in the placebo group.

A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in March 2022 also found that the ingredients in Paxlovid are similarly effective against the omicron variant compared to other variants of concern.

If youre prescribed Paxlovid, two of the pills in your three-pill dose will be nirmatrelvir, which inhibits the SARS-CoV-2 protein from replicating, infectious disease experts at Yale Medicine explain. The other pill is ritonavir, a drug that was once used to treat HIV/AIDS, but is now used to boost levels of antiviral medications.

As a COVID-19 treatment, ritonavir essentially shuts down nirmatrelvirs metabolism in the liver, so that it doesnt move out of your body as quickly, which means it can work longer giving it a boost to help fight the infection, according to Yale Medicine experts.

Paxlovid is authorized for the treatment of mild to moderate coronavirus disease in adults and patients ages 12 and older who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization and death, the FDA said.

But the risk factors that qualify someone to receive Paxlovid include some common medical conditions, in addition to more serious or rare ones.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists medical conditions on its websitethat make a person more likely to get very sick with COVID-19, including cancer, chronic kidney or liver disease, and heart conditions. Other more common medical conditions like moderate to severe asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure, mood disorders like depression, and being overweight or obese also make someone more likely to get very sick with the virus.

The full list is available online but may not include all conditions that put someone at higher risk of severe coronavirus illness.

Adults ages 50 and older are also more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19, especially if they are unvaccinated, according to the CDC.

The FDA says health care providers should consider the benefit-risk for an individual patient when prescribing Paxlovid.

Paxlovid has not been used to treat pregnant or breastfeeding people, but the benefit of taking the drug may be greater than the risk from treatment for a mother and unborn baby, according to the FDA.

Does Paxlovid have side effects?

Common side effects of Paxlovid include an altered sense of taste, diarrhea, high blood pressure or muscle aches.

Are people relapsing after taking Paxlovid?

In a blog post for the New England Journal of Medicines Journal Watch, contributing editor Paul Sax, M.D., documented a case where his patient with HIV relapsed, meaning her COVID-19 symptoms returned, after taking Paxlovid. The patient had more nasal congestion, cough and fatigue not as bad as when the illness started, but unmistakably a relapse, Sax wrote.

The patients at-home COVID-19 test was also positive again after her symptoms returned, meaning its safe to assume she was still contagious, Sax added.

The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) confirmed there are anecdotal reports of cases where the amount of virus in a person increased after finishing a course of treatment with Paxlovid. NIAID said the reports are being evaluated by the FDA and that agency will share additional recommendations on this topic, if appropriate.

A spokesperson for Pfizer said the company believes the viral rebound is unlikely to be related to treatment with Paxlovid, and we remain very confident in its clinical effectiveness at preventing severe outcomes from COVID-19 in high-risk patients.

MOLNUPIRAVIR

Molnupiravir, manufactured by Merck, is the second antiviral pill authorized by the FDA for emergency use. It should be started as soon as possible after COVID-19 diagnosis and within five days of symptoms.

The drug is given as four capsules taken every 12 hours for five days, for a total of 40 capsules. It is not authorized for use for longer than five consecutive days.

An interim analysis in 2021 found that Molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by about 50%, according to Merck.

How does Molnupiravir work?

When Monulpiravir enters a persons bloodstream, it blocks the ability of the virus that causes COVID-19 to replicate, Albert Shaw, M.D., Ph.D., a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist, explained.

Who can take Molnupiravir?

The drug is authorized for adults 18 and older who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death. Its use should also be limited to situations in which other COVID-19 treatments such as Paxlovid "are not accessible or clinically appropriate, according to the FDA.

The drug is not authorized for people under the age of 18, and it isnt recommended for pregnant people because it could cause fetal harm.

Does Molnupiravir have any side effects?

Health experts say possible side effects of the drug include diarrhea, nausea and dizziness. Some allergic reactions have also been reported.

MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES

What is monoclonal antibody treatment?

In February 2022, the FDA authorized a monoclonal antibody treatment called bebtelovimab. The treatment, made by Eli Lilly, is given intravenously soon after a person develops symptoms.

This treatment should also be used when others approved or authorized by the FDA are not accessible or clinically appropriate.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in February that two other monoclonal antibody treatments another made by Lily and one made by Regeneron are highly unlikely to work against omicron. Early data suggest that bebtelovimab works against the omicron variant and omicron subvariant BA.2, according to HHS.

Who can receive monoclonal antibodies?

Bebtelovimab can be used to treat adults and children over the age of 12 who are not in the hospital, have mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms, and who are at risk for severe COVID-19 or hospitalization, like Paxlovid.

PREVENTATIVE MEDICATION

Is there a preventative medication for COVID-19?

Some people ages 12 and older might be eligible for a preventative medication for COVID-19 called Evusheld, which has received emergency use authorization from the FDA.

Those who might qualify include moderately or severely immunocompromised people who might not have an adequate immune response to the COVID-19 vaccination or have had a history of allergic reactions to vaccines.

According to the CDC, the preventative medication contains two different antibodies that can help prevent COVID-19 and must be given before youre exposed to COVID-19.

What should you do if youre not at high risk of severe disease and test positive?

If you have COVID-19 and your doctor has told you to recover at home, you should get plenty of rest, stay well-hydrated, and take acetaminophen, ibuprofen or naproxen to reduce aches and pains.

Despite concerns earlier in the pandemic, it is safe to take ibuprofen and naproxen when you have COVID-19 and the CDC recommends the medications. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) says there is no evidence ibuprofen has any negative effects for people with the virus.

The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter, text alerts and our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Learn More

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VERIFY Fact Sheet: COVID-19 treatments - VERIFYThis.com

AI leads as Pharmaceutical Technology lists five of the most popular tweets on healthtech in Q1 2022 based on data from GlobalDatas Healthcare Influencer Platform.

The top tweets are based on total engagements (likes and retweets) received on tweets from more than 150 healthtech experts tracked by GlobalDatas Healthcare Influencer platform during the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.

Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, shared an article on how AI can be applied in health and medicine. The article shared findings from a two year review of developments in medical AI including studies that aimed to demonstrate the utility of medical AI systems. The use of AI tools in medical practice is currently low despite several studies showing their efficacy.

The effectiveness of AI systems in healthcare was tested in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that involved setups wherein humans received assistance from AI to check the technologys accuracy and other metrics. The studies showed that AI assistance helped in improving clinical experts sensitivity although their specificity was lowered. Furthermore, AI assistance benefited less experienced clinicians than experienced clinicians.

Technical aspects such as the accuracy of AI play a key role in determining the usefulness of the technology in clinical settings, the article noted. Incorrect predictions, for example, can hinder clinical performance despite correct predictions being helpful. Furthermore, the use of medical AI systems faces a number of challenges including user trust, high cost, and regulatory issues. AI systems used for image analysis, for example, require additional equipment to capture images of whole slides, which is often unavailable at health systems. In addition, regulatory issues such as accuracy, ethical use of data and bias are also impacting the deployment of AI in healthcare and clinical settings.

Username: Eric Topol

Twitter handle: @EricTopol

Likes: 354

Retweets: 126

Brennan Spiegel, director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, shared an article on the non-profit healthcare organisation developing the irritable bowel syndrome virtual reality (IBS/VR) virtual clinic. The novel VR programme is aimed at boosting patients brain-gut axis and improve their quality of life. Patients with IBS can use the virtual clinic to learn and practise IBS behavioural methods from the comfort of their own homes.

The virtual clinic includes various areas that patients can navigate to learn about IBS such as exam room, chill out room, zoom out room, pain release room, and trophy room. Theurgent care area, for example, can help patients with acute IBS symptoms, while the skill centre can aid with long-term IBS management by improving cognitive behavioural methods and learning new approaches. IBS/VR is currently being tested with IBS patients, the article highlighted.

Username: Brennan Spiegel

Twitter handle: @BrennanSpiegel

Likes: 108

Retweets: 27

Daniel Kraft, chair at the XPRIZE Pandemic & Health Alliance, an alliance formed to develop solutions for Covid-19, shared an article on researchers at Osaka University in Japan developing wireless e-health patch that does not require charging. The ultra-thin patch monitors heart rate and other vital signs and canassist doctors in monitoring their patients health on a regular basis.

The patches feature a ferroelectric substance that can power itself by converting natural movements into small electric charges through the piezoelectric effect. Researchers claim that the patches can generate up to 200 millijoules each day from normal movement, if placed on a joint such as the knees or elbows, thereby providing sufficient powerto regularly monitor a patients cardiovascular variables.

The patches are hardly visible due to their thin material, making everyday health monitoring less intrusive and uncomfortable.The data collected by the patchescanbe monitored using a smartphone or computer, the article highlighted.

Username: Daniel Kraft

Twitter handle: @daniel_kraft

Likes: 74

Retweets: 52

John Nosta, president at healthcare think tank NostaLab, shared an article on the need to transform telemedicine into more advanced and transformational technology. Telemedicine has the potential to serve as an ongoing and continuous engagement tool, which physicians can use to improve care rather than merely provide analternative for an office visit. Telemedicine visits can be made more interactive and productive for both the patient and the physician by combining available technologies with user education, the article detailed.

Patients real-time data and analytics, for example, can be integrated with other digital health solutions that are currently available to provide a unique and relevant insight into their daily lives. The article detailed thatthe general public can now access medical services and tools that were previously only available to doctors through a number of accurate and low-cost consumer technologies such as an electrocardiogram (ECG) test. Patients and physicians will need to incorporate these innovations to develop long-term modalities, according to the article.

Username: John Nosta

Twitter handle: @JohnNosta

Likes: 52

Retweets: 28

Glen Gilmore, principal of consulting and digital marketing firm Gilmore Business Network, shared an article on how the Metaverse platform can make healthcare more accessible and efficient. Telecommunication companyAT&T highlighted that augmented reality (AR)and VR technologies canhelp with medical training for complicated procedures. The technologies canassist trainees to gain the required skills by creating low-risk virtual training settings enabling them to succeed during practical uses without putting patients at risk.

Furthermore, AI isbeing used by healthcare providers to quickly diagnose and analyse medical issues, assisting with effective identification, preventative care, and potential treatments. The technology is expected tobring new wellness options for Metaverse consumers and healthcare professionals through user consent, the article noted.

Username: Glen Gilmore

Twitter handle: @GlenGilmore

Likes: 40

Retweets: 35

Contract Pharmaceutical Development Services and Commercial Manufacturing in Advanced Softgel Technologies

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In recent years, hospitals and health systems have launched programs or other initiatives to tackle health disparities, from outreach programs and education to recruiting a chief diversity officer.

Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health is no exception, with an approach centered on funding programs through philanthropy.

Jefferson established the Philadelphia Collaborative for Health Equity in 2017, with the goal of advancing health equity in and around the city via partnerships with residents, nonprofits and other relevant stakeholders.

Since then, some activity highlights of the collaborative include partnering with the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations to develop the Hansjrg Wyss Wellness Center in South Philadelphia, as well as awarding $600,000 in catalyst grants, through a Jefferson benefactor, to address mental health; trauma, safety and violence; housing; and built environment in the city.

Now the collaborative aims to raise $100 million by 2024 for health equity initiatives as part of Jefferson's $1 billion Reimagine Campaign.

Elizabeth Dale, EdD, executive vice president and chief advancement officer with the Jefferson Office of Institutional Advancement, told Becker's she is excited about the efforts being made. She discussed Jefferson's strategy for health equity fundraising, shared progress related to the health system's fundraising goal and passed along advice to her peers who are interested in health equity philanthropic efforts.

Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.

Question: What is the health system's strategy for raising funds for health equity?

Dr. Elizabeth Dale: Stephen Klasko, MD, who was president of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health, early on in his presidency said we could grow to multihospital network and be a multibillion-dollar organization, but he'd consider his tenure a failure if we do not address the health inequities in the city. Philadelphia is in top 10 largest cities, and we have a lifespan gap between ZIP codes of 20 years. So, my development team and I took that so seriously. Amid a $1 billion fundraising campaign, we said, "We're putting a stake in the ground, and we're so committed to health equity, we're going to set a goal of raising $100 million to address health inequities in the course of our Reimagine Campaign. We're planning to conclude that campaign in 2024. We have been able to demonstrate to the board and leadership the impact philanthropy makes, with benefactors who have given us major gifts like $5 million from Andra and Kenneth Frazier for the Frazier Family Coalition for Stroke Education and Prevention, a partnership between Jefferson Health and Philadelphia-based Temple Health.

Q: Jefferson set a goal to raise $100 million for health equity initiatives. How is this going?

ED: It's going extremely well. We've raised more than $45 million for a variety of initiatives, including creating the Hansjrg Wyss Wellness Center for refugees and immigrants. It's in the heart of the Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant community. During the pandemic, it saved and improved so many lives. Total fundraising is about $7 million on that project.

We decided to do this because we have one of the top refugee health programs in the U.S., and people were getting their primary care in the emergency room. Some of our philanthropic initiatives are rooted in also helping the health system operate more efficiently. By opening the wellness center, we were able to reduce total cost of care and improve preventative medicine. But what's unique is everything we do, we spend so much time talking to the community. Asking the community and getting input is fundamental to what we're doing.

Q: What advice do you have for other hospitals interested in health equity philanthropic efforts?

ED: My advice would be to get the commitment from the board and the president. When you have commitment at the top of the organization, it serves as a cohesive force in mobilizing. We have 18 hospitals, a two-campus university and an insurance plan. The board and president being fully committed is a game-changer in fulfilling a spirit of philanthropy on health inequity within the whole organization. Plus, it speaks well to all our benefactors.

Also, the Rippel Foundation, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, put us through 18 months of training and the philosophical understanding of how to raise money and how to develop a program in fundraising for health equity. Having a partner like the Rippel Foundation, we had to commit one Friday a month to go through a symposium and we had reading materials. And I'm fully committed to this work, but it gave me the language, tools to use in developing our program.

To learn more about the Philadelphia Collaborative for Health Equity, click here.

See original here:
How Jefferson Health is harnessing philanthropy to address health disparities - Becker's Hospital Review

Applying technologies to drive improvements in medical products' design, development, and delivery of health care services is powering collaboration and innovation.

FREMONT, CA: From institutional care to digitally-enabled care in the community and from doctor-centered care to patient-centered care, digital health companies are speeding up healthcare transformation by implementing important changes. All indications point to the health ecosystem of the future continuing to integrate with the idea of4P medicine(predictive, preventative, personalized, and participatory).

The smart use of data is central to predictive health technologies: many tools collect, analyze, synthesize, and act on dataoften proactively. We can see artificial intelligence (AI) in action with these tools, leveraging the power of health care data sets. For example, Knowtions Research's AI platform assists insurers in unlocking and applying predictive insights from health data to automate claim management and improve the patient experience. Deep Genomics is another example of a company that uses AI to accelerate all drug discovery and development stages.

Companies can take more preventative action at home and in the community as we learn and begin to predict risks for people. Gamified health applications provide timely, personalized interventions to patients suffering from serious or chronic diseases. The trend toward simplified and often gamified access to knowledge and information will certainly result in increased awareness and less strain on the healthcare system.

Companies must understand the consumer's needs as individuals and help them act on and manage their health in a personalized way, thanks to instant, real-time health monitoring.

In this modern, connected health ecosystem, one can invoke the most untapped potential: individuals can participate in managing their health. Examples include Maple's virtual care and Dialogue's platforms, which would enable citizens to access on-demand primary care, mental health therapy, and other services.

See more here:
Digital Health Companies Bring Paradigm Change Across the Health... - Healthcare Tech Outlook

Woke activists have infiltrated nearly every institution of American life. From academia to Hollywood, the radical left has successfully marched its way to power.

Most dangerously, the left has infiltrated an institution where peoples very lives are at stake: health care.

Woke health care just goes against medical ethics, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb says. The tradition in medicine is to give treatments to patients who need them. And if you had to make a decision based on scarce resources, you gave it to the patient who would benefit the most from it.

Goldfarb, a kidney specialist, is chairman of the board at Do No Harm, a national association of medical professionals that, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, pushes back against woke activists in the health care system. He also is author of the new book Take Two Aspirin and Call Me by My Pronouns: Why Turning Doctors Into Social Justice Warriors Is Destroying American Medicine.

Goldfarb joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss the consequences of woke ideology in medicine and how we can bring health care back from the cliff.

We also cover these stories:

Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript:

Doug Blair: My guest today is Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of the board at Do No Harm, a national association of medical professionals pushing back against woke activists in the health care system, as well as author of the new book Take Two Aspirin and Call Me by My Pronouns: Why Turning Doctors Into Social Justice Warriors Is Destroying American Medicine. Dr. Goldfarb, thank you so much for joining me today.

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb: Well, thank you very much for having me.

Blair: Yeah. I want to start with a question that might have some unpleasant implications for people who are going through the American health care system. How does wokeness and social justice in medicine impact the care that patients are receiving?

Goldfarb: Yeah, and I think thats a very important question because it does, I think, illustrate really how this problem may evolve in the future. So, there are at least two really good examples that I can give you where it speaks to this issue.

The first one is a little bit historic now, and it has to do with the fact that some of the treatments for COVID-19 were very scarce when they first were made available. And decisions were made by several institutions, stateseven New York state, for examplethat individuals who came from what were called traditionally oppressed minority groups would get preference for access to some of these scarce treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies, simply on the basis of their skin color.

It didnt matter whether they really were high risk from a medical perspective, they were seen to be high risk because of historical problems in the community.

So this was an example where there really was the possibility for a white patient who actually qualified and needed a medication would not get access to it if there was a black patient who didnt necessarily need the treatment, but who had a higher standing because of an algorithm that gave certain points based on individual skin color.

So you got two points out of the three or four that you needed to get the treatment if you were the right racial group. And obviously, this just goes against medical ethics. It goes against, I think, what most people would think makes any sense. The tradition in medicine is give treatments to patients who need them. And if you had to make a decision based on scarce resources, you gave it to the patient who would benefit the most from it.

Another example has come in the way that patients are admitted to the hospital. So, several years ago, about three or four years ago, one of the Harvard hospitals did a study, which claimed that black patients were being admitted to different parts of the hospital for the treatment of heart failure compared to white patients. And they decided that this must be on the basis of racial bias. And they decided that they would offer only to black patients the opportunity to pick which part of the hospital they want to be admitted to.

Now, it turns out the study was really flawed because, in fact, the reason that patients were being admitted to differential places in the hospital was because of their underlying medical conditions, not because of their race. And it made much more sense to send the patients to the units that they sent to patients.

The white patient who had this heart condition, heart failure tended to have needs that were best served in the cardiology floor. Whereas the black patients who tended to have their heart problems on the basis of their kidney disease, these were dialysis patients who needed fluid removed because of their inability to excrete fluid. They were served much better on a general medical floor where the dialysis treatments could be more easily coordinated.

So this was another example [of] a flawed study in a group of individuals who had this idea that they were going to see everything through a racial lens. And in doing the study, the investigators even said they were using critical race theory as the lens in which to operate. This led to a differential treatment of patients based on woke principles. And critical race theory, to sort of sum it all up, was with Dr. Ibram Kendis idea that past discrimination requires future discrimination. And this was going to be an example of future discrimination.

So here are just two examplesand there are others that I could cite where this has actually become ingrained in the health care system and has real, very unfortunate consequences.

The last one Ill mention is that the federal government has published a proposal and its actually a final rule in Medicare that Medicare physicians will get a bonus if they install anti-racism practices in their practice. So in other words, if they come up with a plan for treating patients differential based on their skin color, they will actually be benefited.

Now, these are examples that I think most people would find really outrageousis the only word for itand not based on medical needs, but based on ideology, really, is the basis for these kinds of initiatives.

Blair: Do we see that this was something that was brewing a long time ago or was it spurred on by events like the death of George Floyd, some of these other Black Lives Matter events that might have spurred this type of thing on?

Goldfarb: I go into this in my book to a certain extent. It really traces back almost to [Karl] Marxs principles that were developed back in the middle of the 19th century.

It had its full flower after World War II when there was a sociologist priest, Ivan Illich, [who] wrote a book called Medical Nemesis, where he sort of talked about many of these issuesabout the way that modern medicine wasnt dealing with prevention enough, wasnt dealing with community health enough, was focused more on treating illness rather than prevention.

What grew out of that was sort of a movement, kind of a new age movement that we should train doctors more on how they interact with people, how they communicate, rather than on these treatments of illnesses with scientific principles, because these kinds of communication approaches and preventative approaches would be more effective for communities. And they are important, but what the real role of the physician is is to treat the individual patient who has an individual problem.

So it arose at that point, but it was quite clear that George Floyds killing led to this tremendous outpouring of sentiment about these issues. And many hospitals and academic medical centers, medical schools declared that, in fact, they had been racist in the past and they needed to expunge any racist tendencies that they may have. Theyve now embarked on all sorts of programs to have physicians take anti-bias training.

And so I think that event, George Floyds killing, certainly led to an outpouring of interest in these kinds of initiatives.

Blair: Obviously, in the title of your book, you mentioned that doctors are turning into social justice warriors and how that is destroying the concept of American medicine. Can you expand a little bit on how doctors themselves are becoming more like social justice warriors?

Goldfarb: Well, thats whats being proposed more and more in medical education, that medical students who are the future physicians become advocates for these various social initiatives. And the reason I think it poses such risk to American health care is because, in fact, physicians dont know anything about these issues that theyre being asked to be advocates for.

Were not trained to be social workers, which is really what this is about. Were not trained to improve housing. Were not trained to improve transportation issues for people living in poor areas. Were not trained to change the availability of foods in various neighborhoods. Were not trained to deal with the consequences of fossil fuel utilization by people as their energy source.

So were spending more and more time in medical curricula on these topics, but the impulse to do this is not so much that they really influence anyones health in a direct way that physicians can act on, but rather, I think it would be useful for the people that advocate for many of these social issues to have doctors as part of their advocacy core.

When someone walks out there with their white coat on and their stethoscope and starts talking to you about the dangers of climate change, that changes the discussion about climate change. And I think thats really been the motivation to try to generate more social activity on the part of physicians.

Blair: Right. You talked a little bit about critical race theory is something that might be being taught to medical students. I guess, does that impact the care that theyre giving in person? I know we talked a little bit about some of the things that like state and local governments have done specifically during the pandemic, but are we seeing that the actual care that patients are receivinglike the medications theyre receivingare impacted by the fact that their doctors are going through these types of programs?

Goldfarb: I would, again, I point back to the COVID story where youll see this when theres scarcity. When theres scarcity, then we start to see decisions being made now based on some of these racial issues, as opposed to the pure medical sort of issues.

So I think that was the most egregious example of it, but I think what the real concern here is sort of what kind of trust are patients going to have in the health care system if theyre told that the system is racist?

Are black patients going to be willing to go see white doctors if theyre told or go to academic medical centers that just announced their anti-racism practices in order to combat the racism that theyve been manifesting in the past? Are they going to lose trust in the health care system because of that?

And I think what weve seen with the hesitancy of black patients to take the COVID vaccines has been part of the manifestation of the endless drumbeat about racist practices that have been present in the health care system.

And so I think the dangers of this are predominantly changing the healthcare system into one in which theres going to be an emphasis on these racial characteristics of patients and a treatment differential thats going to go on because theres been such an emphasis on these kinds of practices.

So I think its a future risk more than a present risk, but again, ever since the George Floyd killing, theres been such an increase in training medical students in these areas that I think is going to become more and more manifest as time goes by.

My institution, the University of Pennsylvania, just appointed one of the physicians to be the associate dean for health equity. Well, health equity in the wokest sort of terminology really means weve got to make sure that the outcomes are equal. And the only way were going to get the outcomes to be equal is if we give black patients some sorts of advantages over white patients in order to make up for past discrimination.

So I think were early in what the impact of all this is going to be. Im hoping that were early in the impact of where all this is going to be because Im hoping that we can prevent this from undermining American health care.

Blair: Now, its not just race that is being kind of inappropriately highlighted in these new sort of woke medical dictionaries and woke medical ideology. Its also gender ideology. So, in the title of your book, obviously, you mentioned call me by my pronouns, which references a lot of this gender ideology that were starting to see infiltrate into medicine. How has that impacted the way our health care system treats patients?

Goldfarb: Yeah, well, this all really began about, oh, maybe 10 or 12 years ago when health care had the capacity to block the development of puberty. And this whole question really revolves, not so much around whether individuals have a choice to become transgender, to change their gender as adults. I mean, this is something that people have a right to do if they want to make such a decision and they have the resources to do it.

The question has been what to do with children and to children who express some so-called gender dysphoria, where they arent convinced that theyre of the right gender. This is a very common sort of and fleeting feeling that many children have. And then it disappears. Should these children be exposed to drugs that might influence their sexual development and their reproductive capacity as future adults?

And I think thats where the real danger is in this new movement because its advocating for children to make decisions about this that theyre really unable to make. And its even putting parents in a very difficult position because those of them that decide that their children really should receive these agents are taking a great risk.

And so, as an individual and as my own particular view of it, is thats really the danger point. We just dont have enough information to know which children might actually benefit from such treatment. There may be children that would benefit from such treatment, but clearly theres been an explosion in the use of these drugs. And it isnt at all clear whether the data underlie that.

What needs to be done are studies that explore whether in fact theres a greater risk of self-harm, of depression, of suicide in children that are not given these medications and allowed to transition to another gender when they have this gender dysphoria.

And its a very controversial point. European countries have been very, very hesitant. And in fact, many of them have decided that physicians should not be given the opportunity to use these drugs on children to prevent puberty from developing so that they can decide whether they want to actually become transgender individuals as they reach adulthood.

So thats really where I think that the area may impact American health care in a great way, is whether children are going to receive these medications or not. And I think its a very controversial area that needs a tremendous amount of study to clarify it.

Blair: Now, as we begin to wrap-up here, I want to know, is our system able to recover from this? Can we salvage the sort of health care element out of this and get rid of the woke stuff? Or is it too far gone? Do we need to start looking at what we can do to kind of bring it back from the brink?

Goldfarb: I think its early. Im very hopeful. Weve started this organization Do No Harm as well. I mean, part of my reason for writing the book was to try to raise awareness of some of these issues. And our organization is a member organization. We have a website, donoharmmedicine.org, and its goal is to really alert physicians, alert patients that these issues are starting to develop in academic medical centers and medical schools.

I dont think its too late. I think theres real opportunity. I think some of these governmental initiatives, like I mentioned before this extra payment for anti-racism protocols, these are early in development.

And I think that raising awareness about these issues, having a public debate about these issues, making sure that people understand the ethical basis for some of these decisions, or the lack thereof, I think will go a long way.

I think that politicians will start to become aware of these issues and start to introduce legislation that will make it clear that we should not treat people in a discriminatory fashion. We should not have racial discrimination in health care, whether it benefits white people or benefits black people, it should not occur. And I think its not too late to prevent it from taking a real foothold in American medicine.

Blair: That was Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of the board at Do No Harm, a national association of medical professionals pushing back against woke activists in the health care system, as well as author of the new book Take Two Aspirin and Call Me by My Pronouns: Why Turning Doctors Into Social Justice Warriors Is Destroying American Medicine, available now wherever books are sold.

Dr. Goldfarb, very much appreciate your time.

Goldfarb: Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please emailletters@DailySignal.comand well consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular We Hear You feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.

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Doctor Reveals How Woke Activists Have Infiltrated Medicine - Daily Signal

Manon Joice, 51, was born in Cornwall Ont., and remained there until her early 20s. It was a town that she enjoyed as it had a lot to offer.

Cornwall, Ontario was a wonderful community, it is very near to Ottawa and Montreal, said Joice. Its right on the U.S. border.

Joice was the youngest of seven children and at a young age she suffered a tragic loss.

The most profound experience is that I was raised as a motherless daughter, said Joice. My mother had died when I was young and I think that shaped me quite a bit.

Joice began working at the age of 14 and from there would work a variety of jobs through high school. Even though she always found herself working through high school she still managed to maintain good academic standing.

I was kind of like a nerd in high school so I graduated high school about a year early and I was always one of those kids that were tested to see if you would skip a grade, said Joice.

During her time in high school, she also met now-husband Lawrence Joice. At the time Joice was working most weekends. However, she was quitting one of her jobs and had a weekend off and she had been invited to a dance. It was there she met the love of her life and was married at 18, prior to attending college.

After considering law school, Joice decided to pursue nursing and entered St. Lawrence College in Cornwall. Following graduation, she remained in Cornwall for a number of years before moving to Winnipeg.

Once in Winnipeg she discovered that her two-year registered nursing course was not recognized in Manitoba. She ended up working as a licensed practical nurse with what was called added skills.

The move to Winnipeg was the first of many for Joice and this was also where she took a step away from nursing. The young family welcomed son, Brandon, causing Joice to step away from her career to raise her son.

Lawrence did safety assignments in the gas and oil industry at the time, leading the family to Elk Point, Alberta. Prior to opening up her first business Joice was writing a lot and trying to determine where her future was going. It was at this time she found herself reconnecting with religion.

I started to write down the names of everybody that I really admired, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, she said.

Joice was trying to find what they had in common and then realized they all believed in a higher power.

Once in Alberta, Joice opened her first business, a flower shop called Stems and Stuff which won a business of the year award from the chamber of commerce in Elk Point. She continued writing and became a contributor to the Elk Point newspaper.

After a few years, the family was on the move again, this time to Lloydminster, Alberta. The family moved as Lawrence found work across Canada working in oil & gas.

Her experience running her own business helped her get into sales where she first began in radio before making the move into TV.

That allowed me the opportunity with some really amazing business people, even though I was consulting with them as their consulting and marketing person, said Joice. It really allowed me the opportunity that when I work with a client to hear their story.

She made the move once again this time heading a little further west into B.C.s Peace region, more specifically Fort St. John where Joice returned to health care.

I was looking back into health care, it was something that I had missed and it was such a wonderful opportunity I was offered and accepted a position as the BC Cancer Agency prevention coordinator for the entire Northeast region of B.C., said Joice.

She was first hired as a contractor with the agency before accepting the position of cancer prevention coordinator. This jump back into health care, along with her new role gave her the opportunity to examine research in the related field.

While working as the cancer prevention coordinator Joice attended Athabasca University, a virtual institution, and completed a few courses in population health and preventative medicine. Joice once again found herself busy as she spent five years as a business coach at the Northeast Aboriginal Business Centre.

At the centre, Joice heard about the dreams of small business clients and entrepreneurs and it wouldnt be long after until she finally realized one of her own dreams.

I attended a conference that really encouraged me to pursue some of my own dreams and one of the things I ended up doing was publishing a book of poetry called Words Inspired Imagined and Revealed, she said. Having already some experience writing news articles she felt she had a unique writing style due to her French background.

She enjoyed her time in Fort St. John but like much of her life she once again found herself on the move, this time to Rycroft, Alberta.

While there she went off in a different professional direction, taking on the role of deputy mayor of the small village.

Joice wanted to make a difference in the community and help represent the voices and views of the local residents. She and the rest of council worked diligently in collaboration with neighbouring communities to overcome issues that the village faced.

She describes one of her greatest accomplishments being a medical clinic that five local communities built together.

What I found striking was the ease to get it built. It seemed as though once our five communities would meet, as soon as we put people first, the decisions just came easy, said Joice.

The only regret that Joice had of her time in Rycroft was that she did not get to see the clinic built, leaving to a new city the day shovels were being put into the ground.

That city was Terrace where she took on the job at the University of Northern B.C. as the program coordinator for the Northern Medical Program Integrated Clerkship & UBC FM Residency Program.

But then it was time to move again, this time she and Lawrence travelled down Hwy 37 to Kitimat.

Joice has a lot of admiration for the northern B.C. town and has enjoyed a warm welcome from the community.

This is a community that has proven to be stable even during uncertain times, she said. I love the family-oriented feel of the community.

She missed the work she did at the business centre and opened her own business, Skeena Coaching.

I would say my area of expertise is business development writing, so I do business plan writing, I do feasibility study plan writing and I do some grant writing, said Joice in addition to coaching.

Previously Joice attended Erickson College for the Art and Science of Coaching. Most recently she has completed a specialty course through the University of Michigan on the Impacts of the Environment on Global Public Health.

Her coaching business does have a faith-based aspect to it as she believes if people use faith to get through challenges easier then they should embrace that. Her enjoyment of writing has also influenced her coaching style as she believes everyone has a heros journey. She believes that everyone is going through a heros journey and it is about understanding and recognizing this call to adventure.

We each have a story and every heros journey ever written emerges from pain and suffering. Joice writes on her website. Our mission is to triumph over our tragedies, and this, the lesson for us all.

For Joice the journey continues however Kitimat may be the town in she finally retires.

This is my retirement place, I want to be a community champion, she said.

See original here:
We all have a heros journey and our job is to triumph over our tragedies - Kitimat Northern Sentinel

Individuals who are not vaccinated with pre-existing diabetes, heart artery disease, or high blood pressure had a 2- to 3-fold increased risk of death, investigators say.

Unvaccinated individuals who contract COVID-19 when they have pre-existing diabetes, high blood pressure, or major heart damage, are up to 9 times more likely to suffer serious outcomes, including admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), death, kidney problems and lung failure, according to combined evidence from 110 previous COVID-19 studies.

These findings can help us identify unvaccinated individuals who are at a higher risk of worse outcomes, even without special tests. This is particularly relevant where health care resources are limited but the proportion of unvaccinated individuals remains high, Sher May Ng of the Barts Health NHS Trust, said in a statement.

The study, which is published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, looked at almost 49,000 unvaccinated individuals in total and identified multiple predictors of more severe COVID-19 and worse outcomes for these individuals compared with vaccinated individuals.

Investigators found evidence showing that myocardial injury, known as heart muscle damage, at the time of admission to the hospital was associated with a 9-fold increase in the likelihood of death. Additionally, individuals who had pre-existing heart complications also had a higher chance of developing other complications from COVID-19, including acute kidney injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and they also had higher rates of ICU admission and invasive mechanical ventilation.

Furthermore, investigators found that unvaccinated individuals with pre-existing diabetes, heart artery disease, or high blood pressure had a 2- to 3-fold increased risk of death, and they also had up to a 2.5-fold increased risk of other COVID-19-related complications.

When comparing the 3 medical conditions, investigators found that individuals with diabetes were at the highest risk for developing severe lung failure. Prior to the emergence of COVID-19, these conditions were already known predictors of heart attacks and strokes.

These findings present a strong case for these at-risk groups to be prioritized for vaccinations and other preventative measures. This is especially true in low- and middle-income countries, where the impact of cardiovascular disease is particularly high, Ajay Gupta, MD, PhD, senior clinical lecturer at Queen Mary and an honorary consultant in clinical pharmacology and cardiovascular medicine, said in the statement.

Successful vaccination programs have reduced the economic and social burdens of COVID-19, as well as effectively prevented severe disease, according to the statement.

Accurate prediction of risk for severe disease and adverse outcomes of COVID-19 can help prioritize vaccinations for the highest-risk groups and help allow effective planning of economic and health policies, investigators said.

More than 70% of the United Kingdom population is fully vaccinated, but less than 15% of the population in low-income countries have received any dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the statement.

In more developed countries, groups with cardiovascular risk factors in addition to other vulnerable groups could be selected for booster and annual vaccination programs, similar to the influenza vaccination program, Gupta said.

Reference

Unvaccinated individuals with heart problems up to 9 times more likely to die or suffer serious complications from COVID-19. EurekAlert. News release. May 4, 2022. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/951664

View original post here:
Study: Serious COVID-19 Outcomes Are More Likely Among Unvaccinated With Heart Issues - Pharmacy Times